Biomaterial Database

Suppression of harmaline-induced tremor in rats by vagus nerve stimulation. 2001

A Handforth, and S E Krahl

Neurology Service, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, West Los Angeles Healthcare Center, California 90073, USA.

We studied whether vagus nerve stimulation could suppress tremor in the harmaline tremor model in the rat. Animals were chronically implanted with helical leads around the left vagus nerve and a disk-shaped electrode positioned subcutaneously in the dorsal neck. Harmaline-induced tremor was recorded on a physiograph while each animal received a sequence of five 20-minute trials. Each trial consisted of five minutes of pre-stimulation baseline, five minutes of vagus nerve stimulation, and ten minutes of post-stimulation. Vagus nerve stimulation significantly suppressed harmaline-induced tremor. The suppressive effect was present within the first minute of stimulation and was reproducible across the five trials of the study. The results of this study suggest that the central generator or expression of tremor in the harmaline animal model can be suppressed by vagus nerve stimulation.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D004195	Disease Models, Animal	Naturally-occurring or experimentally-induced animal diseases with pathological processes analogous to human diseases.	Animal Disease Model,Animal Disease Models,Disease Model, Animal
D004558	Electric Stimulation	Use of electric potential or currents to elicit biological responses.	Stimulation, Electric,Electrical Stimulation,Electric Stimulations,Electrical Stimulations,Stimulation, Electrical,Stimulations, Electric,Stimulations, Electrical
D006246	Harmaline	A beta-carboline alkaloid isolated from seeds of PEGANUM.	3H-Pyrido(3,4-b)indole, 4,9-dihydro-7-methoxy-1-methyl-,Dihydroharmine,Harmidine
D000697	Central Nervous System Stimulants	A loosely defined group of drugs that tend to increase behavioral alertness, agitation, or excitation. They work by a variety of mechanisms, but usually not by direct excitation of neurons. The many drugs that have such actions as side effects to their main therapeutic use are not included here.	Analeptic,Analeptic Agent,Analeptic Drug,Analeptics,CNS Stimulant,CNS Stimulants,Central Nervous System Stimulant,Central Stimulant,Analeptic Agents,Analeptic Drugs,Central Stimulants,Agent, Analeptic,Agents, Analeptic,Drug, Analeptic,Drugs, Analeptic,Stimulant, CNS,Stimulant, Central,Stimulants, CNS,Stimulants, Central
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D014202	Tremor	Cyclical movement of a body part that can represent either a physiologic process or a manifestation of disease. Intention or action tremor, a common manifestation of CEREBELLAR DISEASES, is aggravated by movement. In contrast, resting tremor is maximal when there is no attempt at voluntary movement, and occurs as a relatively frequent manifestation of PARKINSON DISEASE.	Action Tremor,Intention Tremor,Resting Tremor,Coarse Tremor,Continuous Tremor,Darkness Tremor,Fine Tremor,Intermittent Tremor,Involuntary Quiver,Massive Tremor,Passive Tremor,Persistent Tremor,Pill Rolling Tremor,Rest Tremor,Saturnine Tremor,Senile Tremor,Static Tremor,Tremor, Limb,Tremor, Muscle,Tremor, Neonatal,Tremor, Nerve,Tremor, Perioral,Tremor, Semirhythmic,Action Tremors,Coarse Tremors,Continuous Tremors,Darkness Tremors,Fine Tremors,Intention Tremors,Intermittent Tremors,Involuntary Quivers,Limb Tremor,Limb Tremors,Massive Tremors,Muscle Tremor,Muscle Tremors,Neonatal Tremor,Neonatal Tremors,Nerve Tremor,Nerve Tremors,Passive Tremors,Perioral Tremor,Perioral Tremors,Persistent Tremors,Pill Rolling Tremors,Quiver, Involuntary,Rest Tremors,Resting Tremors,Saturnine Tremors,Semirhythmic Tremor,Semirhythmic Tremors,Senile Tremors,Static Tremors,Tremor, Action,Tremor, Coarse,Tremor, Continuous,Tremor, Darkness,Tremor, Fine,Tremor, Intention,Tremor, Intermittent,Tremor, Massive,Tremor, Passive,Tremor, Persistent,Tremor, Pill Rolling,Tremor, Rest,Tremor, Resting,Tremor, Saturnine,Tremor, Senile,Tremor, Static,Tremors
D014630	Vagus Nerve	The 10th cranial nerve. The vagus is a mixed nerve which contains somatic afferents (from skin in back of the ear and the external auditory meatus), visceral afferents (from the pharynx, larynx, thorax, and abdomen), parasympathetic efferents (to the thorax and abdomen), and efferents to striated muscle (of the larynx and pharynx).	Cranial Nerve X,Pneumogastric Nerve,Tenth Cranial Nerve,Nerve X,Nervus Vagus,Cranial Nerve, Tenth,Cranial Nerves, Tenth,Nerve X, Cranial,Nerve Xs,Nerve, Pneumogastric,Nerve, Tenth Cranial,Nerve, Vagus,Nerves, Pneumogastric,Nerves, Tenth Cranial,Nerves, Vagus,Pneumogastric Nerves,Tenth Cranial Nerves,Vagus Nerves,Vagus, Nervus
D051381	Rats	The common name for the genus Rattus.	Rattus,Rats, Laboratory,Rats, Norway,Rattus norvegicus,Laboratory Rat,Laboratory Rats,Norway Rat,Norway Rats,Rat,Rat, Laboratory,Rat, Norway,norvegicus, Rattus
D020318	Rats, Long-Evans	An outbred strain of rats developed in 1915 by crossing several Wistar Institute white females with a wild gray male. Inbred strains have been derived from this original outbred strain, including Long-Evans cinnamon rats (RATS, INBRED LEC) and Otsuka-Long-Evans-Tokushima Fatty rats (RATS, INBRED OLETF), which are models for Wilson's disease and non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, respectively.	Long-Evans Rat,Long Evans Rats,Evans Rats, Long,Long Evans Rat,Long-Evans Rats,Rat, Long-Evans,Rats, Long Evans